Thank you I like how the brightness worked out - it took a bit of work to ensure that it wasn't /too/ dark, as small changes to curve settings had a larger effect than I would have liked -- but I ultimately think it turned out very well myself

The gradient was a bit of an experiment - the amount of purple and pink it has often overpowers the other colors it contains, but this particular setup appears to not do so. I really liked how the pinks and yellows work together in this image, and as I don't think I've really worked with this particular combination before, wanted to do something with it.

Take a structural transform that you like, duplicate it, and both blur the duplicated transform and lower its weight (for instance, use 0.25 weight instead of 0.5). This allows for the details to still be visible, but have a glowing effect to them when you apply appropriate contrast, brightness, and lighting/curve settings to them.

Thank you very much I try to make things in a well-composed way; sometimes I do better than other times, but I try to think that I'm getting better or learning more over time. Framing can be a real pain as it tends to be based on an individual fractal, so sometimes fitting something within a rectangle can be hard regardless of aspect ratio.

The particles are nothing other than simple effect trickery -- an empty transform at a low weight will create a bunch of dots. I think I added some blur to it as well to make it more glowy and substantial.

I agree! Framing and perspective are always keys to making a fractal good, much like setting up a photo shoot. And it's a very cool little trick, if I do say so myself. It really adds a lot of character, and it helps convey the atmosphere incredibly well.